ThermHex: Stronger into the crisis and even stronger out

ThermHex, the honeycomb core producer from Germany has increased its sales in the past fiscal year by 13% compared to the previous year.

The very light but stable honeycomb cores made of polypropylene (PP), their recyclability and mechanical properties as well as the optimal price-performance ratio are convincing more and more customers. Among them are for example a large, private aerospace company and some of the largest commercial vehicle producers in Europe.

The recently launched Organosandwich – a PP honeycomb core with glass fibre PP skin layers – is an insider tip in the automotive industry. The sandwich can be functionalised by injection moulding and can therefore be processed in series to the finished component within very short cycle times.

The current Covid-19 pandemic overshadows the joy of the best financial year since the foundation of the company. The employees have to face shortened work times and the party planned for May to celebrate the company’s 10th anniversary had to be postponed.

Nevertheless, the team is confident regarding the future and has hired additional staff. Another engineer supports the efforts around research and optimisation of material, production process and honeycomb cores as well as their further processing.

The honeycomb cores are becoming more and more important as a lightweight material and ideas for new projects are coming up on a regular basis. Therefore, and due to the first Composite-Sandwich Conference held in Halle last February the inquiries about research and development projects with well-known partners from German industry are increasing significantly.

Some examples are the current research project for the development of a hybrid sandwich material consisting of the PP-honeycomb core and metallic skin layers for the automotive industry, or a project for the development of honeycomb cores for the aerospace industry and the Eureka Labeled project for the production of a hierarchical sandwich honeycomb core for higher load applications.

In the future, ThermHex will also break new sales ground with a new sales manager. Despite the Corona crisis, new customers could be acquired in the first quarter of this year. Fast delivery times, the know-how of the employees and the optimal price-performance ratio of the honeycomb cores are fundamental criteria in many industries and the good experiences of the customers are getting around.